Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Texas Rangers. Scouting reports are compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. For more information on the 20-80 scouting scale by which all of our prospect content is governed, you can click here. For further explanation of the merits and drawbacks of Future Value, read this.
All of the numbered prospects here also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It can be found here.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
First Base-Only Bashers
Tyreque Reed, 1B
Curtis Terry, 1B
Andretty Cordero, 1B
Blaine Crim, 1B
This one is self-explanatory. All of these guys have power and have performed fairly well throughout their pro careers to this point, but they have very high offensive bars to clear at first base. There are enough of these types in the system that one or two might be pre-arb band-aids.
Older Relief Types
John King, LHP
Nick Snyder, RHP
Jake Latz, RHP
Reid Anderson, RHP
Jacob Lemoine, RHP
Scott Engler, RHP
King has a plus changeup and sits 90-94 from the left side. He’s had a TJ. Snyder has the best arm action in the org and sits 93-96 but I didn’t see a consistent secondary offering in the fall and consider him a one-pitch guy; Anderson and Lemoine, too. Engler has also had a TJ and sits 93-94 with plus spin and a good axis. Latz was missing bats with his fastball even though it only sits 88-92, then his elbow started hurting and he was shut down.
Younger Sleepers
Destin Dotson, LHP
Mason Englert, RHP
Kelvin Bautista, LHP
Dotson is a physical beast with a vertical arm slot whose velocity fluctuated a lot last year, peaking at 95 but sitting 86-90. Englert was an early draft pick who hasn’t thrown since TJ. He had relief projection before getting hurt. Bautista is a 20-year-old lefty up to 95.
Catchers
Matt Whatley, C
Melvin Novoa, C
Josh Morgan, C
Whatley is a great defender with some pull power and a high-risk hit tool. Novoa has good feel for contact but is in the 40/45 range for everything else. Morgan’s bat speed looked gone to me in recent looks, though his defensive versatility remains interesting.
Role-Playing Hitters
Julio Pablo Martinez, CF
Miguel Aparicio, CF
Cody Freeman, 2B
Derwin Barreto, UTIL
Keyber Rodriguez, SS
Most of these are contact-oriented hitters. JPM has performed okay while being quite old for his level. He and Aparicio, whose swing became wilder last season, have bench outfield ceilings. Freeman got $900,000 in last year’s draft and he does have advanced contact, but I just don’t see big league twitch. Barreto and Rodriguez are athletic 25th/26th man sorts.
System Overview
Same as last year, this system has lots of high variance players who you can line up in lots of different ways depending on what you value and whose red flags you’re inclined to either ignore or argue around. While you can order these guys in several justifiable ways, there’s general agreement that the top half of the system is tightly packed, full of players just outside the overall 100 because of a scary trait or two, or because they have likely bullpen projection. It’s a deep system full of exciting, big-bodied athletes.
But the last two years have been unkind to its health. The number of injuries, many of which have required surgery, has been a nightmare and caused all kinds of questions about the development and medical staff. A full-body rash of injuries like this is so bizarre that it almost certainly just involves sheer bad luck, though the counterargument is that it’s so widespread that some of it has to be signal.